On Jobs, President "Clueless" Really Doesn't Get It

"If enough people are out of work for a long enough time and just give up (which is often the case these days), then the unemployment rate will decline even as the job market is getting worse.

President Clueless needs to understand this before he gives any more speeches.

There have been 8 million jobs lost during the recession that began during President Bush's administration and continued during Obama's time in office.

So even if there have been 1.3 million jobs created in the past year, that's next to nothing, especially since -- as I said -- it takes at least 150,000 a month just to absorb new people seeking employment.

But the president also needs to understand that the 1.3 million figure is wrong -- as the Labor Dept. will admit on Feb. 4, when the January employment number is announced.

On that date, Labor will also issue its annual benchmark revision to past reports. And right now it looks as if the department will admit that it mistakenly counted at least 640,000 jobs that don't really exist.

Most of this mistake occurred because of something called the Birth/Death Model, which is Labor's way of trying to count jobs created by newly "born" companies that it doesn't believe it can account for properly.

The correction made last year in the benchmark revision was even bigger than the one that is expected this February. But this year's mistake is still very significant.

Shouldn't someone -- perhaps the labor secretary -- tell the president that he's quoting job growth fig ures that the department has already admitted are wrong?"

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